This Slipknot Fan's Story Could Change How You See Corey Taylor's New Mask

Corey Taylor's polarizing newest mask — a collaboration with horror FX pioneer Tom Savini and his team — has garnered criticism from fans, including some who have likened it to a milk jug, spurring a series of memes the singer himself has had fun with on Twitter. But yesterday a story surfaced via Reddit that puts the mask into a new light as one fan shared their own take on it and reason why they love it, recalling a harrowing personal experience that resonated with Taylor's new visage. 

"Coreys mask is a REALLY close comparason to a mask i had to wear for almost 2 years called a TFO, a transparent facial orthosis," explains user CplUrbz in post on the r/Slipknot forum, expounding on a traumatic incident involving third-degree burns sustained in a house fire at age five.

The fan explains that the mask, as well as compression garments, were used to control swelling as skin grafts healed and, as a result, their appearance made them stand out at school: "Needless to say, I was not a pleasant thing to look at and boy did it make me all sorts of 'popular' at school at that age."

Through enduring "massive amounts of shit" from other students, the fan has an uplifting outlook on what the mask ultimately represents. "Corey's mask may not be what some wanted, but to me its a massive image of character change and reformation. the breaking of a person and the steps required to be better. Its not scary but that mask, my mask, made me into a stronger self sovern bulletproof person than what i may have turned out to be before I had to put it on."

Moved by the fan's story and connection to the mask, Taylor responded via Twitter. "Wow. I'm humbled by that story, and so glad that it could explain something I was trying to describe," he wrote. "This album is indeed about rising above the pain and being reborn. And the mask is also a reflection of it all."